#name-change

These each have a whopping one use in canon.

1. Damage/scarring to the muzzle. Has to be pretty severe since that’s a pretty small area, but a big slash across the nose or side of the muzzle might do it.

2. Could work if the muzzle is a distinctly different color, but will pretty much only work with unrealistic designs since white muzzles are so common.

This one is pretty weird, I’ve only rarely seen either of these used, but I may as well include them, I guess?

1. A good orator/storyteller. Same deal as -throat and -tongue, theoretically. I don’t recommend this, though, because I’ve yet to come across a name where it really works.

2. Some sort of major damage or injury to the mouth. However, I’m not sure what you could use as the prefix.

3. EDIT: A medicine cat suffix, because they are the “mouth of StarClan”. I think the weird connotations actually kind of work with this, so I can endorse this one! Suggested by themissinglynx.

The issue is, I’ve seen -maw used as though it’s just a synonym for mouth. However, maw, more often than not, is used in the sense of “gaping maw”, for the mouth of some sort of monster. It’s not...a great picture for most warrior cats. So just be aware that, if you go with “-maw”, I’m immediately going to think of this:

So these justifications are pretty flimsy, but that’s ok cause we’re not fully traditional here. I just wanted to take a shot since this is a canon suffix.

1. A cat with noticeably colored toes. The most likely situation for this is a bicolor with spots on some toes, but if you don’t care about realism the sky’s the limit. Just don’t pair it with White- since white toes are very common.

2. A cat with some funky toes, correlating with prefix. I’d be more inclined to use this for syndactyly rather than polydactyly as that tends to be much more noticeable.

1. A cat good at swimming. From Owlheart’s list. The legs propel a cat when swimming.

2. A combo speed and agility suffix (or one of the two). I always thought this combo would be nice to have in a system, so it slots in nicely with -tail and -foot.

3. A damaged or missing leg or legs. Could be born with a twisted or missing leg or acquire the injury. 

1. An attractive cat. This is inspired by the first use of it in canon, Brindleface, being described as pretty. Concepts of attractiveness also generally focus on the face.

2. Could be used to say a cat strongly resembles an animal they were named after, in a similar way to Ailuronymy’s -step. I just think it’s a fun alternate option that gives very vivid imagery.

3. For a major injury pertaining to the face. Should correlate with the prefix somehow. The most typical use is to have the prefix be a descriptor like Torn- or Clawed- , but could also be paired with the thing that caused the injury such as Dog- if your rename system supports it.

4. Literally describing the color of the cat’s face. For example, Blueface for a blue point or Half-face for a split-face tortie. The usual warning about naming a cat for one body part applies here, consider that the kit is often destined for one suffix when you allow names of this type. 

-fang is more common in canon, but these are more or less synonymous, so I’ll write them up together. You can use just one, have them be the same, or give them separate meanings.

1. Combo hunting and fighting skill, the classic Ailuronymy use of -fang. Cats finish their prey off with a bite and also bite when fighting, so it can reasonably represent both, or possibly either of the two.

2. Cat with a snarky personality. Doesn’t necessarily make sense, but Yellowfang is still in many of our minds and I remember this meaning being around on some older naming resources.

3. Possibly a damaged or missing tooth, or some kind of injury exposing the teeth? You can make pretty much any body part suffix a name-change suffix if you’re creative enough.

A classic canon suffix!

1. A cat skilled in battle. This is mostly how it is used in canon, and it makes sense, as cat mainly use their claws to fight. 

2. Possibly a cat that has been declawed - while not particularly visible, depending on how you treat renames, being declawed could be considered a significant impairment worth acknowledging. In this case, it must absolutely be paired with a prefix such as No- or Missing-, and could be used in the plural form as -claws.